Chapter 4:

I lived in a small apartment in Seoul. Alone. People tended to think that one would get lonely in an apartment all by themselves, especially at my age. I wasn’t really. I went to school almost every day and saw all my friends. Beside, frequently it was a place for Chanyeol and Baekhyun to come to whenever food was on their mind.

My parents lived in America and paid for most of the bills and my school tuition…reluctantly. They actually wanted me to come with them but I refused so I pitched in money from my job to help pay.

I refused to live in another country that I didn’t grow up in while I was still in high school. Someday I did want to travel but not while I was still in school. My parents still don’t agree.

They pitched the idea of me living alone in hopes of scaring me to America but that only sounded more prosperous. I was perfectly fine living alone. Unlike most teenagers, I was neat, a good cook and easily independent.

However, I was still waiting for the day for my parents to tell me enough is enough. While I loved them, having them visit during the summer for a month was fine enough for me,

It was a day after I investigated Kai’s background, which turned out to be more shocking than expected. I was supposed to talk to him today but I chickened out. I had to admit it. I was pretty scared of him now.

Noble intentions or not, Kim Jongin still beat up six guys and punched a teacher. What the hell? I thought the rumor might’ve had some truth but was stretched a lot. I thought that he might’ve just told a teacher off and punched another kid, but according to Sehun and Luhan, he literally beat up six guys and put one of them in the hospital.

I had to be more careful now with who I was messing with.

Then I started to wonder. What would Kai’s parents think about the fact that he beat up six of his own classmates and hit his teacher? That’s gotta hit them hard. I knew that if I did that, my own parents would buy a ticket to Korea and fly back first thing so they could spank me with their own hands.

I sighed as I stirred together the spinach with the olive oil and vinegar, taking in the scent of the salad that I made. Cooking definitely wasn’t a problem for me.

With my fingers, I picked out a leaf and stuffed it into my mouth, deep in thought. As I chewed, I continued to think about Kim Jongin. He was constantly on my mind. I felt another sudden urge, stronger than before, to find out who he was.

I vowed that I wasn’t going to chicken out the next day.

*

A lot easier said than done. I watched as the boy walked down the hall, his strut layered thick with a strong and confident swagger. He was definitely arrogant. I should’ve known he’d be like this since the moment he spoke to me.

While I was at my locker, retrieving my books, I looked to my left, scanning the hallway for other people around. The only other person was Kai and he just shut his locker and was beginning to walk off.

That was when I tugged on his sleeve and turned him around. He snapped his head in my direction, freeing his arm with a sharp pull.

I cringed back in surprise. He was definitely stronger than I had anticipated.

With a shaky breath, I started, “I-I have something to say.” Mentally, I slapped myself for stuttering and sounding so unsure.

Jongin must’ve been confused because it was only yesterday and the day before at the coffee shop where I had stepped up at every chance given to me and protested against the handsome boy.

“Do you?” He questioned. “Something worth my time?”

“Oh please,” I argued. “Everyone is worth your time,” I tried to resist the urge of covering my mouth but I did it anyway. My inner need-to-correct-everyone self, came out once more.

He raised a challenging eyebrow as if I really wasn’t worth his time. To me, it was the other actually the other way around.

“Why haven’t you,” I hid my gulp. “Why haven’t you told anyone the truth?”

Jongin seemed to know what I was talking about yet at the same time not, like he didn’t want to believe whatever I was saying to him.

“About what?” He pressed, looking highly uninterested though.

“About your middle school,” I bravely answered, looking him in the eyes but still feeling lower than I should have. Kai’s height compared to mine made me look unintimidating. Why’d he have to be a lot taller than me?

Kai was still playing dumb.

“My middle school?” He inquired. “What? The fact that my grades were-“

“You know damn well what I’m talking about!” I raised my voice, forgetting about keeping calm. Hey, I was a singer. I knew how to project sound. “I talked to Sehun and Luhan.”

Before I could process anything, Kai grabbed my blazer and pulled me around, shoving me into a wall behind the lockers, every ounce of darkness in his eyes apparent.

“Don’t talk about eighth grade like you were there.” He hissed, venom laced into his words with every bit of power he had. And his voice was powerful…but not as much as his grip.

I stared at him with wide eyes, shaking violently, still shocked at him. I should’ve seen something like this coming.

Jongin’s round lips were about level with my forehead but his eyes were looking down at me, injecting douses of fear into my veins. He could really hurt me. There was a dangerous look embedded in his expression.

“It’s not f-fair,” I managed to stammer, feeling small in his grip. The little rebel inside of me that had come out many times before against him was shrinking back into shameful darkness.

“Nothing is fair,” Kai responded, still sounding as if killing me was looking like a bright idea to him. “But what happened last year is none of your business.”

I took a few shaky breaths, trying to remind myself to breathe more often.

“But everyone has the wrong idea,” I answered, suddenly getting that sorrowful feeling in my gut to replace the pain and my eyes traveled downward, watering slightly.

Kai watched me, his expression never softening, however his grip on my jacket loosened slightly as he watched me tremble again.

“Like I said,” His voice was low. “It’s none of your business.”

His grip was now totally gone and he released my clothes and walked off, adjusting his books as he left. His stride now looked like it had before as if nothing had happened.

He must’ve had practice…looking unfazed.

And there I was, shivering like the room dropped 10 degrees in temperature.

*

“Hey are you doing alright?” Chanyeol questioned, gazing at me while I picked at my food, reluctantly.

Suddenly, my beautiful sandwich I prepared the night before was looking unappetizing. My conversation with Kai was worrying. I hoped that no one had heard us. It was awful enough, walking into the classroom.

Yesterday, after the article was published in the school newspaper, I got even more stares than I needed. As if the bruise on my mouth wasn’t enough.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I responded, watching Chayeol’s attention immediately turn to Baekhyun who was busy chugging down some apple juice.

I looked over at Kai’s table and saw that Kris wasn’t sitting by him. Kris wasn’t at the school at all either. I felt a little sad watching him but I refused to let the sadness continue on into a deeper sorrow by reminding myself of Kai’s extreme rudeness.

“So about that talent show,” Baekhyun started after he finished the last of his juice. “Wanna do a duet with me? It’ll be fun!”

I sighed. There was no way Baekhyun was ever going to back off.

“Okay maybe a duet,” I told him. “But don’t get your hopes up!”

A duet would’ve been better than a solo. I would still be extremely nervous. Singing was so easy to me but the moment someone else heard I felt trapped.

“Hey, you should write a song for it,” Baekhyun continued, causing me to throw my head back in annoyance.

“Yah!” I said. “It’s not that easy!”

My food was beginning less and less interesting by the second.

“But you’re so good at it,” Baekhyun went on. “The last song you wrote was so amazing! Covers are so unoriginal!”

I just shook my head. Maybe.

“Maybe,” I spoke my mind, turning to Chanyeol, “What do you think?”

“Do it!” He cheered and I was about to lose my mind.

Then I stopped looking at them and turned my gaze to the ceiling. I was losing my mind…because of this situation with Kai. Suddenly…it was inspiring for lyrics.

I lost my mind, the moment that I saw you.

Hmm. Interesting. It could work.

*

That night I had my guitar laid in front of me along with my unfinished homework and blank music staff pages where notes were supposed to be.

I dug out a pencil from my notebook and started to tap it against my leg. Inside my head, I played tunes…tunes that could possibly work. Normally I came up with a common theme of notes and then started with the lyrics.

After about an hour of playing around with my guitar, I found a few notes that I would use to keep repeating. I decided on making the tempo pretty slow.

This was actually a miracle. Coming up with the main tune of the song normally took hours, opposed to this short amount of time.

However, the lyrics were what stumped me. All I had was, I lost my mind, the moment that I met you. Except you, everything else gets in slow motion. That was all. My strong emotions for Kai, a mixture of confusion, anger, annoyance and slight sympathy combined didn’t add up to lyrics. They only added up to me losing my mind.

I thought maybe if I played it a few more times, it would come to me.

“I lost my mind, the moment that I met you. Except for you, everything else gets in slow motion…” I trailed off in thought.

A loud applause was what broke my concentration and I turned around, surprised.

There stood Chanyeol smiling like a dope and still clapping.

“Yah!” I yelled, my senses coming back into me. “How did you just let yourself in?”

Chanyeol smirked, rolling his eyes.

“Oh please,” He said. “I’ve known where your spare key is for almost a year.” He twirled it between his fingers skillfully.

I was unimpressed by his little talent.

“That was great by the way,” He informed me.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the compliment, feeling self-conscious.

“Did you want something?” I wondered, setting the guitar down and getting up to see him.

“Honestly, you don’t know?” He laughed, opening up a few of my cupboards.

I did have a feeling that he was hungry. When was that giant not hungry?

“What do you want?” I asked him with a sigh.

“Mmm…how about an omelet?” He exclaimed, excited.

I rolled my eyes.

“Fine,” I mumbled, reaching below the oven to grab a frying pan. I put it on the stove and turned the heat on and then proceeded to put a little butter on the inside.

Quickly from the fridge, I grabbed a green pepper, some dried salami, brie and cheddar cheese, and then an onion.

I expertly chopped the green pepper and onion, putting them together in a bowl, while Chanyeol watched in awe. I sliced the salami into cubes and grated the cheddar cheese, putting that in the same bowl as the brie.

Next I took out a few eggs from the fridge and cracked them in a bowl. After that, I put the rest of the prepared ingredients in it and whisked until smooth. By the time I finished that, the pan had just heated up and finished melting the butter.

I dumped the mix into the frying pan and watched it sizzle. After a few minutes I turned it, then again until it was in the perfect shape. I finished it off by taking it off the pan and topping it with salt on one of my favorite plates.

“Here,” I handed it to my friend who was still smiling in amazement. “Want something to drink with that?”

“Orange juice?” He asked, sitting down at my table.

“Ugh, but that’ll be the last of it,” I complained giving it to my friend anyways as I sat by him and watched him eat.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Chanyeol wondered, his mouth full of food.

I shook my head.

“An omelet? At night?” I answered. “Chanyeol, you do know that it is around ten pm, don’t you?”

Chanyeol’s eyes widened as he looked at the clock.

“Oh…yeah…”He remarked. “I’m sleeping over.”

All I could do was continue to sigh. I didn’t mind at all though. I wanted a little company. Sometimes it seemed like Chanyeol and Baekhyun were in their own little world together. But especially since I got involved with Kai, I felt like I was alone on more things.

After Chanyeol finished cleaning the dishes, something he volunteered to do, I tossed him a pillow and a blanket. He got extremely comfortable on the couch in my living room and beckoned me to come and watch T.V. with him.

I watched until he fell asleep, a giant on my couch, and then I left to brush my teeth and sleep. That was, if I could. I was the lightest possible sleeper in the world.

And Chanyeol's snores were like a blow horn.

.

.

.

Author’s Note: Heating up >.> Oh yeah. All shall be revealed in time. So yes. Sorry if it seems slow but character development is my specialty. So just wait and it will all come because I always update XD But I haven’t decided if I want to put in or not…what do you guys think? Maybe some...light .